Mongolia

Government Structure

Form of Government

Mongolia in 1989 was a communist state modeled on Soviet
political and government institutions. The government was a oneparty system, presided over by the Mongolian People's
Revolutionary Party. The party exercised political supervision
and control over a pyramidal structure of representative
governmental bodies known as
hurals--assemblies of
people's deputies (see Glossary;
fig. 13).

Figure 13. Organization of the Government, 1989

The highly centralized governmental structure was divided
into three major parts: the executive branch, presided over by
the Council of Ministers; the legislative branch, represented at
the national level by the unicameral People's Great Hural (the
national assembly); and the judicial branch, with a Supreme Court
presiding over a system of law administered by courts and by an
Office of the Procurator of the Republic. The duties and
responsibilities of each of these major bodies were identified in
the Constitution promulgated in 1960.

Beneath the national level were key administrative
subdivisions consisting of eighteen aymags, or provinces,
and of the three autonomous cities (hots) of Ulaanbaatar,
Darhan, and Erdenet
(see
fig. 1). On the next lower
administrative level were counties, or
somons (see Glossary),
and town centers. At this basic level, government and
economic activity were connected closely, so that the leadership
of the somon and those of the livestock and agricultural
cooperatives operating within the somon often were
identical
(see Structure of the Economy
, ch. 3).

The party related to the apex of the governmental system
through its authoritative Political Bureau of the party Central
Committee. In 1989 this nine-person body contained the presiding
leadership of the country, and it was headed by party general
secretary Jambyn Batmonh. Batmonh had dual power status in that
he also was head of state as chairman of the Presidium of the
People's Great Hural. Batmonh was promoted to these top-level
positions in 1984 after his predecessor, Yumjaagiyn Tsedenbal,
who had been in power since 1952, was replaced by the Central
Committee, reportedly for health reasons
(see Socialist Construction under Tsedenbal, 1952-84
, ch. 1).

Below the national level, each aymag and somon
had its own party organization that conveyed the policies and
programs decided by the Political Bureau and directed the work of
its counterpart assembly of people's deputies, its agricultural
cooperatives, and the local government executive committee in
implementing party programs on its level. The concentration of
power at the top of the political system and within party
channels had, throughout history, helped to create a complacent
party and government bureaucracy, a development that hampered the
leadership's plans to modernize the country and to stimulate
economic development in the late 1980s.

Content
on this web site is provided for informational purposes only. We accept no responsibility
for any loss, injury or inconvenience sustained by any person resulting from information
published on this site. We encourage you to verify any critical information with
the relevant authorities.